


They Say Confession's Good for the Soul

by callmeonetrack



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 12:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9385526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmeonetrack/pseuds/callmeonetrack
Summary: Lee confesses how he diverted the CAP and used up half the fuel reserves while Kara was missing on the red moon. Also: a piggyback ride! Whee!





	

Lee's head is filled with numbers, columns of numbers, as he slips into the enlisted head just past 0200. The President has been on his back ever since he diverted the CAP to search for Kara on that moon, asking for tylium stock analyses nearly every day. The extra paperwork adds hours to his already long days, and he's mid-yawn, eyes half shut, when he stumbles over something on the floor and bangs his knee hard on the sink. 

"Frak!" he swears and clutches his knee, as he looks down to see the offending item that tripped him. Kara's crutches are lying there, like she just tossed them on the floor. 

"Damnit Kara!" he yells, frustrated. She's been leaving the frakking things everywhere, too stubborn to use them half the time she leaves the bunkroom.

"You screamed, Sir," she says, drily, limping out of one of the stalls. Her eyes widen as she looks down at his knee, which is already red and swelling. "Nice one, Apollo. You better watch out," she smirks, "or you might have to get a pair of those yourself."

He fumes, and turns to face her. "Well, if you'd stop leaving them all over the godsdamn place, I wouldn't have to! You know, your knee is never gonna frakkin' heal if you refuse to use the damn crutches, Kara! Cottle said you can't fly until it's strong enough to press six Gs."

She actually rolls her eyes at him, and turns away to the sink to wash her hands. "Yeah, thanks Lee," she grits out, sounding anything but grateful. "I know what Cottle frakking said alright? And I am working out and I'm getting stronger every godsdamn day. So just mind your frakking business!" 

His temper piques. This is the thanks he gets for trying to be Kara's friend. Lee is so frakking sick of her shutting him down every single time he tries to help. He reaches out and grabs her arm, fingers gripping hard around her bicep and Kara flinches. He ignores it.

"This is my business, Kara. Because I'm the CAG and you're my lead pilot, and you are still walking around here, like you are frakking invincible!" He's yelling now, the words tumbling out even though it's not what he intended to say at all. "Do you even know how close you came to dying on that frakking moon? We went through 40% of the fleet's fuel reserves and we still couldn't find you!" Her eyes widen, but he's not done. "So if I have to make it a godsdamn order, Kara, then I will. Use the frakking crutches! Every time!"

She's staring at him, wide-eyed, and he thinks for a split-second that he even sees fear on her face. But then Kara looks away from him, her head shaking slightly. "I just don't like the damn things, alright?" She says, though her tone is softer now. Kara tries to pull her arm out of his grasp but he doesn't let go. "My Gods, Lee. What are you, my frakking mother?" 

With a cry she yanks her arm free, and Lee freezes, because he knows what her mother did, what she was like, and Kara's skin is red and bruised where he was holding her arm. His blood runs cold. "Oh Gods, Kara, I'm so-- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." The words trail away in a murmur, as Lee reaches out a tentative hand this time, gently taking her elbow and turning her arm, tracing his fingertips over the mottled skin. He lifts his eyes to hers, feeling sick at what he's done, and Kara is staring at him in confusion. And then her face ripples, and she laughs. Why the hell is she laughing?

"Lee, Gods, your face. You didn't, okay?" Her mouth twists in amusement. "They're from the crutches. That's why I don't use them. They're old and the padding's nearly worn through, so they've been cutting the hell out of my arms." 

He swallows, his stomach settling as understanding dawns. 

"Hey," she says softer now, her eyes still scanning his face. "You didn't hurt me." 

Lee rakes a hand through his hair, relieved. "Well, why didn't you just say something?"

"Like you gave me a chance?" she laughs. "You started yelling before you even saw me!" She sighs, and reaches down, lifting the crutches. "Fine though, point taken. I'll use the damn things from now on."

She props them under her arms, and her face tightens as she swings a step forward. The bunkroom's at least twenty yards down the hall. 

Lee steps in front of her. "Wait, I've got another idea." He reaches for the crutches and pulls them away, letting them drop to the floor as Kara stares at him in surprise. He turns his back to her and squats. "Climb on."

It's silent for a second or two, then he hears the distinctive cackle Kara makes when she's really amused. "Are you serious? The CAG's gonna give me a piggyback ride?"

But she's already leaning into his back, her arms sliding around his neck, and he grins. "The CAG's off duty. But as your friend, just this once, I figured I could help you out." He pauses. "Unless of course you don't want me to, then--"

She jumps a little, her legs rising and wrapping around his waist. "No way! Giddy up, Apollo!"

He scoops a hand under each of her thighs and stands. "Just don't get any ideas about slapping my ass, Starbuck, okay?"

"Would I do that?"

"Does Tigh like alcohol?"

They trade good-natured jabs as he moves back to quarters, the warm weight of her pressing against his back, the silky ends of her hair brushing his neck. Thankfully the corridors are mostly deserted, everyone who's not on shift already socked out in their racks.

Clumsily they navigate the hatch to quarters, Kara giggling as he bumps them into the table in the middle of the room, his depth perception thrown off by the extra weight. He shushes her, not wanting any of those drawn curtains to open for witnesses. 

Lee kneels onto her rack, ducking and twisting, and Kara plops onto the mattress. "Thanks for the lift, Apollo," she whispers, slightly too loud still for his liking. 

He taps her knee. "Tomorrow, you go to sickbay and show Cottle those arms. Tell him he has to find another set of crutches for you, or wrap some gauze around them or something. CAG's order." He grins a little in the darkness. "I need my best wingman back, ASAP."

Her answering smile lights up the dark brighter than a supernova. "Wilco."

"Get some sleep, Kara." He pats her leg, and shifts to stand. 

"Lee?" 

He pauses.

"What you said before, in the head. Did you really blow through 40 percent of the reserves looking for me?"

"Yeah. We couldn't see anything in that haze, practically ran all the birds into the ground. Chief wanted to kill me," he chuckles softly, because he can laugh about it now, with the warmth of her calf pressed to his hip, "I even redeployed the CAP." 

A beat passes. "Why?" Kara says, her voice soft with wonder. "That's crazy, leaving Galactica defenseless to search for one pilot."

"I know, it's not...textbook strategy. But I just, I- had this stupid idea, you know, that if you were... gone, really gone, that I would know. I'd feel it somehow," he takes a breath, aware he's confessing more than he ever intended to here, "and I didn't. I just knew you were out there somewhere still. Waiting." 

She doesn't say anything, and he forces a laugh, embarrassment making him flush, grateful it's too dark for her to see it. "Stupid right?"

"Yeah," she says, but her hand brushes his against the mattress, fingers wrapping around his and squeezing in the dark. "Really stupid."

They sit like that, her hand covering his, in the quiet darkness, until someone coughs from a nearby bunk and the spell is broken. She pulls back her hand and he rises, murmuring goodnight. As he climbs into his own rack a minute later, oblivion already tugging his eyes closed, Lee can't believe he told her all that stuff, about deploying the CAP and using half the fuel reserves. 

Lee's grateful as he drifts off that he didn't tell her all of it: that if he'd been given the chance, he would have burned through the other half too.


End file.
